In the Returning Wake of Life
by His Little LabRat
Summary: The phone is ringing. He's waited for this call for days. He lets it ring - he doesn't want to seem to eager. Hanna & un Zombie centric fic. Fluffy.


The phone is ringing.

He's going to let it ring. He doesn't want to seem to eager to answer, so he lets it ring. After what seems like an eternity of ringing to him, he reaches for the phone and waits half two seconds to put it up to his ear. He doesn't want to seem too eager. He's happy that his smile wouldn't be seen through the phone, or it would have been a dead giveaway to the excitement that was beginning to boil over him, enough to make his foot tap on the floor, and as he began to speak, he hopped on top of the counter top so it wouldn't make noise.

"This is Hanna," he said into the phone, rather formally as he meant to. He didn't want it to show, after all. He pulled the phone a little more so it untangled itself, the curly cord of it tugging back as his he did. Man, his phone was so not awesome. It was all outta date and stuff, but it worked and he carried on, so that's all that really mattered to him.

"Hey, Hanna. It's me," the voice on the line told him and he almost laughed - who _else_ could it be? It wasn't like anyone else would call him anyway! But he went with it. It's not like he was trying to hide the fact that he'd been waiting for this call for like three days or anything, ya know? And that didn't mean that he also wasted a whole load of time waiting so he could be there when the phone _did_ ring, lots of time wasted of spatial reminiscence of nothing in particular just for this call.

"Oh, hey, bro! How's it going? You all settled in there and stuff?"

"Yeah, we've got everything settled." We? Wait - who did _we_ imply? Oh, probably just his family and stuff, right? Right…

"Good! I mean, how'd they take to _actually_ seeing you again? I mean, it's not everyday a guy from, like, eleven years ago just rises from no where and stuff - but, like, it's gotta be good to go and see all the people you know and your family, right? And it must be especially awesome now that you can remember your own name, huh?" He smiled widely at that fact. From the other end of the line, he could hear a small chuckle. He laughed. He _laughed_. Hanna's little heart gave a wild thud. It was happy. It was hurting. He kept his smile on though, ya know, just in case his former partner had somehow gained magical powers to see him through the phone. Whoa, what a creepy super power - wouldn't mean you'd be able to spy on people and, like - oh, wait. He was just alive again, not reincarnated as superman.

"Yeah, it's really nice. They all handled it really well. A few were still a little shocked, but it's all settled now." Haha, Hanna thought that maybe it was just because he was dead, but he wasn't really a many of a lot of words, huh?

"Oh, awesome, dude!"

There was that chuckle again. It sent a shiver down Hanna's spine. Was he really laughing?

"So how is everyone?"

Hanna laid back on the counter top, his grin plastered widely across his lips. "Everyone's great! Did you hear? Toni and her band were playing, like, two nights ago or something and some record deal kinda guy - you know, in the music industry - was listening to their songs and they got this kinda deal thing with him and-" Was he happy to be home? "-I guess they improved enough that the leader singer doesn't wake the dead, ya know? Ahaha, I'm so bad, I shouldn't have said that, sorry, but, like-" Was he really laughing? He never laughed like that before with him. "-so Conrad's busy all the time doing his artwork for this commission thing he's got. He didn't tell me a whole lot about it, but you know how he is. And Veser's not really doing anything, but whenever I see him, he's usually with-" Was he really such a burden to him that he… "-and Worth doesn't do much - that I _know_ of, at least - except he's hanging out with Lamont a lot lately. Lamont said that Worth was looking into surgery. Creepy. But, yeah, ya know, everyone's really awesome!" Was he really happier without him around?

"Well, what about you, Hanna?"

"Hey, uh, is it okay if I still make up weird names for you? I mean, even though you remember your name and all, I dunno, I guess I just had fun with it…" Hanna told him, shifting to roll over onto his side atop the counter. He felt like a teenage girl talking to her boyfriend of the phone for the first time. LAME.

There was silence for a little moment between them, and he could image that he was going to ask why he deflected the question, but then he heard, "You can do whatever you want, Hanna."

"Sweet," Hanna responded, the 'E' sound he made being more drawn out a little bit longer than the rest of the letters through his tempo. He was grinning again. Aw, yeah. This was gonna be awesome! They continued talking for quite a while, talking about things that would likely get them stared at in public; they went from runes to dinosaurs to everything in between (rather, Hanna did most of the talking, but still, he actually didn't speak as much because he was being spoken to more than he used to).

By the time Hanna realized he had to go to the bathroom, he was splayed eagle-spread across his counter top, the counter more than warm from his laying atop it for so long as he just listened to Galahad speaking to him and speaking back in turn, often in long tangents. It was a little odd, but Hanna felt like maybe he could feel Amadeus smile through the phone (that, or he was just being incredibly creepy). That made Hanna really smile though (and talk more to see if he could even get out a laugh or two, which he found out, he was pretty successful at, more than he remembered). He had only realized that he had to go though when Alejander was telling him about a childhood memory about swimming at a pool, and he wriggled on top of the counter so he could contain himself long enough, trying not to laugh at the story because that _really_ did not help, and the little mental image in his head of Richard losing his swim trunks while in the community pool was really too hilarious for him to stand. But, luckily, Tutankhamen stopped and asked if he had anything similar like that or something, Hanna really wasn't quite sure, as he was focusing too much on trying to hold it in that he wasn't focusing on the words any longer.

"So, tomorrow, you wanna hang out or something?" Hanna deflected, especially as the question was probably really relevant to his past - _way_ not cool. "I mean, we can just hang out and do nothing - because we all know how _awesome_ that is, amiright? Or, ororor, we an, like, abduct Toni and Veser and Conrad and we can have a party ! OH, a party sounds awesome - " insert Stanley's laugh here "-okayokay, but seriously now, I gotta _go_-" to the bathroom "-but you wanna?"

"Well, I actually have something to do tomorrow, so I can't… but what about the day after? I have that day off." He had that day off? Off of what - work? Where did he work - does he - Hanna shook his head of the thought, trying to pay attention for once.

"Alright! So it's a date! See you then, alright?" Hanna's grin never faltered through it.

"Alright. So it is. Well, have a good night then, Hanna."

"Okay, yeah, see you in two days, Machiavelli!" As soon as he said that, he waited for Petr's line to go dead before he hung up. He pulled the phone away from his face and dropped it with a nice _clunk_ from some epic plastic-to-countertop contact. He laid there, eagle-spread still, another minute, his smile still plastered on his lips. He drew in a deep breath through that smile and finally pushed himself up into a sitting position, only to notice that he couldn't see a foot in front of his face. He gulped and looked around himself for his glasses, because, man, they must have fallen off while he was rolling around on top of the counter in suppressed laughter. He rolled his eyes. He was so into talking to Ferdinand that he didn't even notice the fact that the ceiling was flatly one color. Then again, it was always like that, especially since so little light actually came in through that one little window that he had.

Carefully, he peered over the edge of the counter. Though he couldn't see worth shit, he could see colors, although they were just blobs of color. He was kinda glad that he hadn't cleaned all their papers off the floor. His organizational skills proved useful once again (not that they actually proved themselves worthy in the first place,, but WHATEVER)! He reached down, sticking out his tongue in concentration as soon as his eyes laid themselves upon the black mass that Had to be his glasses. Just a little more… almost… ahah! He got them - then he almost crushed them beneath himself as he fell off of the counter. He growled slightly, but pushed himself up off the paper-covered floor, pushing his glasses back up his nose as he sat up, situating them once more so he could see.

Smiling, he pushed himself up off the ground, going to a light jog to reach the bathroom (even though his apartment was so small that the bathroom was only like eight normal steps away), bur he was so excited for tomorrow that he practically skipped his way there.

That night was restless for Hanna. It was always quiet as night without Fritz, and although Hanna was insane, he wasn't nearly insane enough to talk to himself. That would just be silly! So he spent that night lying in bed doing nothing but tossing and turning and laughing at his own thoughts. He was _way_ too freakin' excited to be able to sleep and his thoughts kept wandering off to what tomorrow would be like. He hadn't really any idea of what'd they do. Maybe he could, like he had suggested on the phone, call Conrad and bother him until he came. Or maybe Toni - she might be willing to hang out if she wasn't practicing, especially since they hadn't hung out in a while, right? RIGHT! And maybe he could go to the park and kidnap Veser - he was always into a good party, wasn't he? Yeah! And if Ves was going, Ples would probably be dragged along by his watch chain, haha - oh, and if he invited Lamont, Worth would probably get lonely and then show up too eventually. If he tried really hard though, he could probably convince Finas and Casimiro to come, even though they probably hated guts because of , but WHO CARES. They could probably use a good party- OH, did that mean he should get out the poker set or something? Finas and Casimiro just seemed like the Poker type- ahaha, Finas probably had an amazesome (see what he did there?) pokerface- can't read his, can't read his, no, he can't read his pokah-face - he gonna-

Hey, when did his alarm start going off? He laughed and rolled over, dropping (well, not really dropping since the mattress was on the floor already) his feet to the floor, reaching over to turn his alarm off. He pushed himself up off the floor, moving to almost skip about his apartment as he decided what they - being he and Isasias - could maybe do tomorrow… well, he _had_ spent all night planning what to do for the party, so why not? He couldn't help but smile as he picked up the phone and began dialing Toni's number. Hopefully she was already awake, because he did _not_ want to deal with a cranky werewolf.

Oh, man, ohman - he out-slept his alarm today.

Hanna got up and snagged his clothes from the closet, changing as quickly as he could. He hadn't expected himself to sleep at all, but he had - even _over_slept. And straight through his alarm. Did it even go off at all? He swore he turned it on, but maybe he hadn't…?

He shook his head of the thought as he pulled his sweater over his head and - hey, wait… this wasn't his sweater. He looked at his hands, which were covered by the sleeves, his hands just barely past the curve of the elbow on the sleeve, so… oh. This must be one of Castiglione's sweaters. No wonder it was so big! It smelled nice too - almost like cologne but more natural - and it was really comfortable. And holyshit, if he didn't pick up the pace he was gonna be late! He laughed at himself and fixed his slightly askew glasses on his nose, pushing them up, as well as pushing up the sleeves on the sweater because he didn't wanna waste time on changing and _damn_ did Rhett have some _long_ arms!

Hanna gasped as he realized how distracted he was getting and laughed at himself yet again, his grin wide as he opened his door and closed it quickly before he took off running. Toni had a key to his apartment as of yesterday when she agreed to get decorations for a little mini-party for Rueben (after she told him _never_ to call again that early), so he didn't have to bother about anything else, really, except keeping Ezequiel out of the house for a bit as Toni instructed him to do because she wanted to take care of everything and make it awesome-

"Hey, watch it, kid!"

"Yeah, look where you're going!"

"Get outta the road!"

"Sorry!" He called out to the angry drivers, quite a few of which were blaring their horns at him repeatedly. First thing's first, he needed to try not to get himself killed. And maybe keep track of time better too. Sometimes, he wished he was Ples - he'd probably be able to keep time so much better. But, you know what? That's what he had Filiberto for! Or… did?

As soon as he though that, he stopped running, suddenly feeling sluggish in his stride. He blinked slowly and looked around. He fisted his hands up and drew in a deep breath, determined to get there even if he felt like his feet were made of lead. The metro wasn't all that far off from where he was anyway, just down the street.

As he dashed down the stairs into the metro, he jumped every few steps, nearly missing them. He skipped down the hallways of the metro, dancing past other people who gave him some very curious looks, but then ignored him as soon as he was away from them and nearly bumped into someone else instead, some probably rolling their eyes with that expression that just screamed "teenagers these days" with a roll of their eyes. Not that Hanna really cared. He was more focused on being able to see Parisio again. He was so excited that he even skipped past the ticket gates. That was, until the guard caught him by the shoulder on the other side with a funny expression that made Hanna laugh kinda nervously as he pulled out his empty pockets - wait, what? He laughed again nervously as he pulled out the pockets. Yep - empty. Ohshityeah, he left his ticket at home, didn't he? He almost face palmed as the guard escorted hi back across the gates with a sigh like he'd seen this a lot, telling him to pay more attention (damn if he heard that not once, but nine times today already) and to buy another ticket if he wanted to ride.

Escorted up to the ticket machines, he down turned his eyes to the ground in slight thought. Empty pockets meant no wallet, right? And no wallet meant no money, and no money meant no ticket, and no ticket meant he was totally screwed. So as soon as guard guy took a step away from him, Hanna took the chance and made a mad dash for the stairs, leaving guard guy behind him with that same, exasperated "damn teenagers" look on his face that more people had shown as he rushed past them. He was totally inconspicuously conspicuous, right?

He kept up the running almost until he got to his apartment and he began to trip on his shoelaces just after crossing the street. Twice he almost fell flat on hid face, but he was in such a rush that he refused to stop and tie them. He just finally took off his shoes as he made his way up the stairs of his apartment stairwell, going up to his floor rather awkwardly as he reached back and fingered his shoes off his feet; he stuck out his tongue in habit of concentration as he worked off his second shoe, almost to his floor with his eyes already on the door.

With his shoes in his hands, he finished the last few steps and reached for the door. He turned the knob then stopped, two very… unique voices on the other side of the door - one of was fairly throaty, like the owner smoked a lot, the other angry and thick, yet with a floating tone, that made it seem German - both voices he had easily become familiar to. At one of the voices, he cringed, especially as he opened the door and learned he was right about both voices. That and they were standing in front of the door to his apartment.

"You sure you don't need my help, sweetcheeks?"

"Yes, I'm _sure_. I'd really love it if you'd just leave, I'm _sure_ I'll be let in soon."

"I'm not so sure, especially with that loud music playing."

"Yes, well, I _am_ sure. I'd prefer it if you'd just _leave_ already!"

Hanna could only cringe. _Man_, Conrad really had a thing against his landlord (not that he blamed him, especially with the way she was trying to be all up close and personal on him. He felt kinda sorry for him - just, ew).

"Hey, guys," he said rather tentatively and breathlessly as he got close to Conrad and Mrs. Blaney. Conrad's face and expression changed instantly from one of pure, unadulterated rage to his more normal look of discontent, his eyes switching to Hanna behind his glasses. Then his face scrunched up unpleasantly.

"_Hanna_?" He asked with an expression on his face as if he was never angry in the first place. "Aren't you supposed to be meeting up with-"

"Falk?" Mrs. Blaney interrupted, to which Conrad's expression went back to its previous temperament, glaring at Blaney, who was just looking at the redhead as he jogged over to them with one eyebrow raised in question. "Who's in your apartment?"

"Ah- it's, uh… huh, Toni," he said as he reached them, still fairly out of breath. Blaney raised both of her eyebrows now and looked to Conrad, who looked like the pinnacle of pissed off.

"And sweetcheeks here wants to get into your apartment," Conrad bit his lip with a disheveled grunt of something like "Don't call me 'sweetcheeks," to which Blaney just looked at him blankly. "Well, sweetcheeks here-" Conrad imitated that face he made when he first met Hanna then - the one where his teeth and fists clench in pure rage and he looks like he might just jump someone and pop a cap in their ass - and, haha, Conrad would totally be a cool gangster. Maybe he should have them dress up one day as gangsters - ohmygod, Renato would look _so_ cool as a gangster! "-can't get into your apartment because whoever's in there-"

"Toni," Hanna interrupted quickly.

"Yeah, whoever, is playing music," she finally finished before taking a little drag of her cigarette.

Conrad sighed, slouching forward as he did. "She couldn't hear me knocking, but Hanna's here now, so _please_ leave; we don't need you. _Leave_." Blaney just looked at the unbeknownst-to-her vampire, whose snaggletooth was probably making his lip bleed by now because of his biting it so much. "Well? Are you going to let me in, Hanna?"

"Huh? Oh, yeah… first, you got a metro ticket on you?"

"What?" Conrad asked, a questioning look on his face as he raised on eye brow, biting his lip like always. "Yeah, it's how I got here…"

"How many ride you got left on it?" Hanna asked through half-pants.

"Uh… maybe seven more? Something like that."

"Sweet. Uh, ya mind if I borrow it?"

"Sure…" Conrad said as he fished out his wallet from his pockets, flipping out the ticket, to which Hanna's grin spread widely and he swiped the ticket, that big grin almost frightening Conrad for a second, but then he turned to Blaney. "Why are you _still_ here?" He asked, flaring at the gender-questionable landlord.

"Thanks, Connie!" Hanna called back to them as he was already down the hall, the door to the stairs clicking shut behind him as he disappeared into the stairwell.

"Wait - Hanna!"

"_That's_ why I'm still here."

Hanna was already outside the building with his shoes in his hands as he ran. Yeah, he should probably put his shoes on knowing how this city was, but he didn't have the time. The metro train was leaving in like two minutes, probably.

He dashed back down the steps, bothering only to jump the ticket gates. When guard guy came to stop him this time, he flashed his ticket at the guy with a big, beaming smile and the guard supposed he'd let him go since he seemed to be in a rush, but he was left with that expression that made Hanna laugh out loud as he literally jumped the last flight of stairs down to his train platform. He tore off across the platform, seeing his train in front of him - he was on time! Kick ass-

Until the doors closed in his face.

He grunted as the train pulled away with his face print on the window, the winds the train made as it began to pick up speed sweeping up his hair and making it even more messy than before.

The redhead threw his arms into the air. Only ten more minutes until the next train!

Some people on the other side of the platform gave him some odd looks, not that Hanna really noticed anyway as he sat down on a bench, wondering what he could do for ten minutes, looking around himself curiously. He slumped back against the wall, wondering if he should go get himself some food. Closing his eyes, he smiled widely as he found the image of waffles behind his eyelids. Mm, yeah, baby. Waffles sounded great… maybe he and Voltaire could make some later with the waffle iron and- he opened his eyes. He almost forgot. Lancelot wasn't living with him anymore- _hey, look, a security camera!_ He made a silly face in its direction as it looked at him - smiling widely and dumbly, he stuck his hands up in a "Rock on" fashion, thrusting them upwards towards the camera, whose little red light blinked in his image to the security guards behind it. He was sure that guard was more than tired of him by now.

Hanna continued making faces at the camera until something fluttered him his vision - a blue butterfly. He jumped up from his seat and jumped after the floating butterfly, arms flailing about and stick legs leaping off the ground repeatedly in a desperate attempt to catch it. It took quite a while of leaping and floundering about and running up and down the stairs, but he finally caught the blue insect, catching it between two cupped hands. Moving one of his thumbs, he peered into at the insect with a big grin, giggling as it moved on his hands, its legs tickling his palm and its wings brushing his fingers faintly.

A great roaring echoed down the tunnel and the ground seemed to shake - his train. But, jeezok, the whole roaring train seriously made him feel like he was going to Narnia.

The train slowed to a stop in front of him and he kept his hands cupped together, the butterfly still in his hands, even as he stepped onto the train. He just _had_ to Parris, of course.

Man, Hanna truly loved riding the subway. There were always interesting people (one of which was him, not that he actually realized) riding the metro and he loved the way the trains lurched forward when they were taking off and then again when they had to stop. He also loved the lights that lined the tunnels between stations underground and he liked counting them as they blew past, the way the light flooded the cars of the train as it finally started to make its way above ground and how it almost made him feel a little vertigo, if you didn't hold on you'd fall over as the train took off or came to a stop, and that _woosh_ feeling, ya know, like you're on a rollercoaster and- "-Station next stop."

The train rolled to a stop - haha, Hanna loved that feeling. It almost made him giggle. Either way, this was his stop, and he quickly stopped up to the door next to the throng of other people that were waiting to get off the train. The doors slid open and he was almost bouncing in place with excitement, bounding out the doors as it finally got to him and he weaved his way through the crowded station, his eyes searching every moment for Hale and-

"Look out, kid! Pay attention!"

"Watch where you're going!"

"Damn teenagers…"

He smiled meekly and moved around the crowd, eyes still weaving hopelessly in and out of the crowds of people, apologizing almost every other step to people he bumped into. Finally, he moved out of the way of the influx of people, moving off to a safer, less crowded spot by a bench far back by a wall. Was it maybe bad if he honestly didn't know _who_ to look for? He hadn't yet seen his un-zombie partner as… un-zombified. Who was he supposed to look for? He was sure that Jae would still look like himself… just minus the stitching and green and glowing eyes and white tuffs of hair and-

Hanna shook his head and stuffed his hands into his pockets, leaning back against the wall next to the bench, his smile hanging loose on his lips. His blue eyes flitted to a clock that hang off the wall before him; the meeting time had already passed. He laughed at himself faintly, pushing himself off the wall with his hands holding themselves together behind his back. With each step he took, his hands swung back and the too-big sleeves puffed up with air, then fell again as they came back and hit his back. His eyes kept darting around. Maybe it was just him, but it seemed as if forever had already passed since he got there. Maybe it was just him?

Hanna twirled in a circle, arms thrown out as he pivoted on his toes. His eyes searched the crowd again. He wondered where his zombie- err, _un_zombie friend was. Smiling widely, he wondered if Vincenzo had already left because he was late. Would he do that? Hanna laughed cheerily to himself.

Well, everyone seemed to leave in the end, didn't they?

Suddenly, he felt his hair being ruffled and he laughed loudly, turning around to see a tall man standing behind him with a gentle smile on his lips.

"Hanna, I told you to meet me at the next station over."

Hanna's smile just spread and he laughed loudly. "Did you?" Siddharth just smiled back at him - that kind smile that made Hanna's heart just skip a little bit and he wasn't sure what tally number he was at in his mind on Smiles for Imohtep, but he added a few to it anyway.

"So let's get going, shall we?"

In all honesty, Hanna really hadn't expected Valdes to show any kind of emotion like he always did, but almost the entire train ride back (most of which consisted of Hanna blabbering as per usual), Otto was smiling. He seemed so happy even that it frightened Hanna a little, as well as made him especially happy. Though, still, every time he finished a story and looked over to his now-undead friend, he was expected to be met with glowing orange-gold eyes and an apathetically green expression that would just rarely crack into a small smirk (which he would then take as a really big smile because, hey, rigor mortus was probably a really hard thing to break). But, instead, he was met with eyes that instead subtly glowed with life a fair golden brown and pale skin that held a pale pink smile at his words and, sometimes, that smile would release a small laugh and even once a really hearty, loud laugh that just made Hanna's day that much better. It was even odd to see his hair; a full sheer black that when it hit the sun just right, it passed off a chocolate hint of colour, which he noticed as soon as they got out of the metro station and the guard yelled at him again for jumping the gates, but shook it off as Faustus apologized with a laugh and pushed his ticket through twice, which left Hanna bouncing up the stairs yelling back at him to hurry up because he had something awesome to show him. And it was _then_ that Mephastophilis stepped into he light and Hanna couldn't help but stare from the top of the stairwells as Rafe made his way up the stairs.

"Hanna," he asked when he reached the top of the stairs, giving another faint laugh of his that made Hanna just want to squeal with joy. "Are you okay?"

"Huh? Oh, yeah, I'm fine! I was just waiting for you," he explained, feeling like he was blushing, although he was unsure if he actually was or not. Melchizedek just gave him that stare that was slightly questioning, but still grinning faintly, to which Hanna gave one of his beaming smiles. Hanna then bound off again, his now-undead friend following after, shaking his head with more faint smiles. Crossing the street without really looking (well, get off his case, other people were crossing too, so he was okay), he walked backwards, waving back at Kratos for him to hurry up because he "really had something awesome amazing to show him." He waited on the other side of the street bouncing in his shoes while Frede checked both sides of the roar before crossing, which Hanna found kind of funny, seeing as there weren't any cars anyway and there were still others crossing the street. "Ohoh, Boethius, did I tell you?" Halfway across the street, his friend raised an eyebrow. "About the butterfly I found earlier on the subway?"

"You found a butterfly in _this_ city?" Hanna nodded excitedly, his grin wide. "Are you sure it wasn't a moth?" The redhead nodded again in the same manner as before. Ezio raised an eyebrow again, turning his head a little to the side so he could look at Hanna out of the corner of his eyes slightly with that same questioning look as before that just made Hanna want to giggle, especially that disbelieving smirk of his.

"Yeah, it was a butterfly - not a moth. Moth's aren't blue," he says, nodding matter-of-factly.

"Oh, it was blue? You didn't tell me that."

"You didn't ask!" Hanna laughed, to which Wilhelm shook his head with a smile. Man, he sure did seem to smile a lot more than he used to. He wondered if it would be weird if he asked if his smile was (keyword: was - 'cause, you know, he was no longer dead 'n' stuff) the only thing affected by rigor mortus - were zombies affected by rigor mortus? Or was that just a temporary state immediately after death - because his movements seemed to be as fluid as a live human's would be when he was dead, which is totally unlike any moves a zombie would make in all those old movies, which were all jittery and stiff, like how rigor mortus is, right? So maybe it was just a temporary state of being after death- _well then_, this changes _everything_. Hanna pondered the situation at hand as he skipped down the street, Alasadair following behind him. "Well, like, anyway, so I was going to the train and then, like, the doors shut in my face, so I went and sat down at a bench and started making funny faces at the security camera just because I could and - haha, I bet that security guard is űber pissed at me by now, I mean, he was probably watching those security videos of me and being all like, "Double-U-T-F, man, I hate teenagers, G-T-F-O my metro system" but- oh hey, yeah, you're right, we were supposed to turn there, haha, my bad. Well, then, I saw this blue butterfly, right? So I started going after it, like chasing it up the stairs and stuff, and I swore that butterfly was like a flying _cheetah_ or something, like, _man_, a freakin' speed demon of the air! It took me like ten minutes to catch the freakin' thing! And, like- _whoa_, thanks for the save, Gilles, I totally just like _almost_ walked into that door. But yeah, I think that's about all of my story really, haha. Just kinda wanted to tell you. I wish I could've kept it though. Oh well," he finished off, giving a sing-song pitch to his words.

"Hanna, why did you want to keep that butterfly?" Alasadair asked from behind Hanna as the pair walked up the stairs, almost to the third floor already. Hanna looked back at him, still walking up the stairs.

"Huh? Oh, I wanted to give it to you. Just thought it'd be nice, ya know?" Hans smiled back at him. That really just made Hanna smile wider. "Hey, so, what time is it?"

Raising a single eyebrow, Altair pulled down his sleeve, which, for the second time today, Hanna realized that his arms were really freakin' long- haha, oh yeah, he forgot he was wearing his shirt. No wonder he couldn't see his hands when he looked for them! "It's almost noon." Hanna stared at the other a moment, Friedeich just staring back at him with a questioning expression. Hanna's smile then grew wide as he simply stated, turning around fully to face him, "Let's go eat. I could seriously use some pancakes."

"I can just make you some-"

"Naaah, I don't have anything for pancakes," he lied softly with a beaming smile and laugh. He normally wouldn't lie - especially not to Orion - but it was for the sake of his happiness in a sense, wasn't it? Jeezok, that made it seem like Manis was his girlfriend who he was cheating on or something, hahaha. That's just silly. But he just meant that Toni and everyone was probably still setting up for the party, so he wanted to give him some time. With another beaming smile, Hanna raised his elbow outwards towards the other, as if escorting his date. "So, shall we?" Thayer laughed and they started off then, descending back down the stairs which they had come up just moments before.

"So, can I ask you why you're wearing my shirt?"

Maybe it was because Hanna had never seen Dietrich eat food before (being that he was a zombie and all), but it was kinda weird seeing him do so. He meant, not that he was a messy eater or anything - in fact, he was really proper about it, even for pancakes; using his knife to cut everything up to eat (albeit a little awkwardly at first, but then again, he hadn't held a knife or fork in over a decade probably, so he gave him props for that) and not shoving the whole pancake in his mouth like Hanna almost did the second their plates were set down because he'd waited _so_ long to eat and hadn't eaten yet that day, which just made Keir laugh softly before eating but _anyway_ - he just wasn't used to seeing him eat. And he was polite about everything he did too; even if it was just something as simple as putting his cup down, he always put a napkin under it to prevent a ring from staining the table. It made Hanna feel a little sloppy, but totally appreciative that Bastien was there.

After that, Hanna insisted on paying, saying he "totally got this," but by the time the check came, the waitress was staring at Gilbert so intently with that love-struck stare of hers that Hanna didn't realize Ilyitch slipped her enough money to pay for their meal and then some, also telling her to just keep the change with that ever-charming smile of his, to which she giggled. Hanna was too busy telling his friend about something really cool about how there was this group of werewolves the other day in the graveyard that he could see from the roof of his apartment building to really figure out that Hunter paid anyway. At least, until Hanna finished his story (for the most part at least, there were still some exciting pieces he wanted to add in) and Antonin ushered him to get up, offering a kind smile, that Hanna really noticed what just went down (only after asking if he expected them to dine-and-dash or something, to which Benedict shook his head, saying his already paid, which made Hanna ask how he could have since he saw never it happen, but then he contemplated aloud if before he was ever a zombie he was really from the future and he knew what they were going to order and how much it was going to cost). The walk back to Hanna's apartment nearly consisted of Hanna's thoughts becoming vocal on his theories of the universe, which the other man just listened patiently as always with that same placid yet happy-seeming smile that he always seemed to wear now.

Maybe it was just because Hanna was having so much fun - everyone knows time flies when you're having fun - but the part seemed to go by so quickly it didn't even seem to happen. Last thing he recalled before he realized it was just himself and Juventino once again (just like old times) was Ples picking Veser up off the couch bridal style and excusing them both before wishing them both good night and "adieu" an closing the door quickly on the much older male as he walked down the hall with shark-boy in his arms. Hanna's apartment was never the cleanest place in the world, but it was definitely a little worse after the party than usual. Not that Hanna minded; he liked his organizational chaos.

"Ah, I should probably get going too," Ramone said, looking about the apartment, and Hanna knew he was probably fighting the urge to clean up as he usually did while Hanna was sleeping for the sake of getting home and being with his family again.

"Wait! Knabe, I gotta show you something really cool! It'll just take a minute!" Hanna pleaded, waving the other over to himself where he was standing by the front doorway of his apartment. Roslyn just looked at him, blankly. Hanna laughed and wiggled his fingers at him, cooing in a sing-song way, "peer pressure, peer pressure," until Adagio let out a soft sigh that fell into a faint laugh as he relented. "It won't take long - promise!"

"Alright! Here we are!" Hanna cheered as he popped the window up and crawled through the new opening from the window up onto the rooftop. Dorian followed him up a little more slowly, finding Hanna standing with his arms out wide, standing against the wind at the edge of the building, which honestly made his stomach flip a little, though he knew to trust Hanna more than that. "Well, technically, we aren't there _yet_, but we totally almost are!" Hanna said, climbing onto the ledge.

"Hanna!" Berkeley shouted, rushing over the ledge.

"Don't worry so much, Florian! I'm fine. Just follow me and watch your step, 'kay?" Hanna said, walking out on the edge further and he knew that Davisse was probably watching in awe as he walked out what seemed to be thin air, walking straight parallel over the street, walking across with his arms stretched outwards just as he had been doing before when he was standing against the wind. "Isn't this pretty cool? There's actually panels here that are invisible - isn't that freakin' awesome? They're actually liked four feet across," he said, turning back to look at Hoyt. "I just did the tight-rope act to see what your reaction would be," he finished, giving a boasting laugh as he proved himself correct at look of awe on Cicero's face. "Come on, it's fine!" Hanna said, waving him over.

Slowly, Cliff pushed himself up on the ledge, swinging his legs over and feeling around a quick moment, immediately feeling the "ground" panels. He pushed himself up on them, wobbling slightly at first. "Weird, isn't it?" Hanna asked, hands folded behind his back as he watched Hollis, who looked up at him with his arms doing the same tight-rope walk that Hanna was doing earlier. "I mean, seeing the street below your feet. Seems like something out of a weird sci-fi movie, right?" Hanna added, grinning widely, turning around, pushing his arms out in either direction, going back to tight-rope walk he was doing, although it was useless to do so. It was like a Follow-the-Leader, except everything was all out of whack.

"Can they see us from the street?" Malthus asked, keeping his head down but his eyes darting up to look at Hanna.

"Huh? Oh, no, they'll just see the sky above us. It's pretty awesome, eh? I wonder what they were set here for. I never did figure that out," Hanna answered, trailing off again and he knew Landon was wondering how he found it in the first place but was probably too afraid to figure out what the answer to that question was. Hell, Hanna probably didn't even know.

Halfway across the stretched panels, Hanna threw his arms up, laughing loudly and with a bubbling tone, the wind sweeping his hair in every direction as he walked.

On the other side, Hanna hopped down quickly, landing perfectly on his feet like a nimble cat, followed quickly by Clive, who slid down after him. Hanna then waved him over to a ladder in the far corner, the redhead setting off into that little, happy jog he did as he made his wave over, Murdock keeping on after him steadily as he always did, even as Hanna scaled the side of the building via the slightly rusted ladder, which just made Hanna smile wider then he was before (if possible).

"Almost there," the redhead cooed at him as they ascended the ladder, Hanna's eyes on the top rung, the ladder clicking slightly under their shoe soles, although the ladder must have seemed nearly endless for poor Talmage. Hanna pushed himself up onto the roof of this building, offering a hand to Rollin, although it wouldn't do much good really since Hanna was much, much smaller than him. But whatever, it was the polite thing to do, wasn't it? RIGHT. "So, we're actually here now - pretty cool, huh? I mean, you can see the whole city from up here!" Hanna said, throwing his arms out and spinning, moving towards the center of the roof, then off again in a skip towards the edge, Cassius following after him with a small smile, his golden-brown eyes surveying his surroundings steadily, taking in the shining lights of the city that seemed to stretch on endlessly and disappear towards the darkening horizon, then back towards Hanna, who was putting his hands up on the ledge of this building and pushing himself up.

"Don't tell me there are any more invisible panels," Ephraim said, giving a faint but maybe slightly nervous laugh. Or maybe it just seemed that way to Hanna.

"Nah," Hanna said, turning around to face Percival as he sat on the edge, smiling. "I'm just sitting." Eldred shook his head, offering his hand out to Hanna, who pouted back at him.

"No, just give me your hand."

Hanna laughed, pushing his hand out towards Arley, who held firmly onto his hand, moving up beside him, still holding his hand and leaning against the ledge, Hanna's eyes following him. Selmer stared off into the distance a while, then looked to Hanna and cocked a brow in question.

"Why are you holding my hand?" Not that he minded at all, really.

"Just in case you fall," Hilliard explained quickly in that slow voice of his, staring back off into the horizon line once more, taking in the sites.

He decided to take the direct approach. "Is that an excuse?" For whatever reason, he was reminded of Veser. And then Ples. What?

Lucien gave a little laugh, closing his eyes with that same, small smile before he looked back over to Hanna. "Maybe."

Hanna grinned, giving a knowing laugh. "Totally knew it."

"Mmn," Mahlon agreed.

"Hey, Evert?"

"Hm?"

"How'd you know?"

Slowly, Aron looked to him, grinning with half-closed eyes. It frightened Hanna a little bit, but also filled with a great joy, and slowly, he felt himself progressively leaning backwards, off the building, his eyes on Orrin, whose gracious smile and loving eyes were on his and his large, soft hands were suddenly not on his own hands, but on his chest, pushing him ever-so slowly backwards over the edge. "Th-Thaddeus?" Hanna asked, worry lacing his words at why his best friend in the whole world was pushing him backwards, why the sky seemed to turn so black, why he let go of his hand, why, why, why why why-

"That's what we're waiting for, aren't we?"

His friend's voice spoke to him, apathetic and uncaring as the palely tan fingers of his hands pushed him continually backwards, until he could hear the cars roaring below him more than before, until he was parallel to the ground once more and the fingers brushing up his chest, giving the last little push that sent the redhead over the edge, his hands still reaching up towards his beloved friend. For a moment, it seemed as if time had frozen and his hands twisted in the air slowly for Gabriel's hand as if it was a leisurely motion, his eyes wide with fear. "Theron, I-"

The silence of it all fell and it seemed that Hanna fell so slowly, the walls, the edge, the windows, the roof of the building that Westley stood on disappearing until it looked like he was standing on those panels, but through them he could actually see him still, the rest of the world black and decaying all around him, as if the world was being choked into a black hole. And, maybe that's exactly what it was, as Hanna didn't feel himself falling, his glasses not being whipped by wind nor his hand flying about, but everything about him was still, except for that hand that still stretched for Asbury as he continually fell away from him.

"Everyone knows that you cradle the sun… but the sky is over; living in remorse, Mr. Cross."

Then he felt the wind whip him and drown out his words as surely he fell straight in a dive towards the ground, all of his body choked for anything but that hand that still reached out towards his _best friend _who moved naught, just watched him fall away down the building with those glowing golden eyes that he loved so much and that hideous smile that he wanted so much to see more of, needed so much of.

He could feel himself whimper against the howling wind and he didn't dare look down. He only extended his arms outwards, letting the air catch him, sending him spiraling downwards and dizzying somersaults, and he closed his eyes, smiling widely as he always did, happily back up at Ransom, letting himself fall.

Suddenly, the wind stopped and he felt something brush his sides, and he opened his eyes, and he was in the sea; the blue waters filled with a thousand paper cranes that he was sinking past slowly, the need to breath no longer existent as he marveled at the cranes that buzzed about freely in the water like a swarm, spinning around him like a hurricane, sucking him down slowly as they spiraled about him. Past his glasses, he could see that the cranes were pulling him down, down, down into a black abyss, from which just the tiniest hint of light shone through, the abyss swallowing up.

He was then standing on concrete, his shoes stained red, the cranes scattered about randomly on the ground around him, a man laying before him.

Blue eyes grew wide at the man.

Delmar, Nolen, Gallahad, Reinhold-

Haskell was gripping the edge of his pants uselessly as blood sputtered from his mouth. "H-Hanna," the dying man, his dying friend, his close-to-being zombie choked out to him past bubbling blood, past wounds and a dying heart filled with dying breaths. "H-how… could you?"

"No," he said, eyes wide past his glasses. "N-no, Andrin, no, I didn't, I couldn't…"

The dying man's eyes grew wide, filling with light and death and all the sadness as his memories washed over his eyes, invisible to all others, the blood be speckled man gurgled something final at him.

"You did."

"No, no, I couldn't, I wouldn't, I - I -"

"Hanna, Hanna, Hanna," the dying man said in a rolling chant, the ground turning black again, the sky and the lights in the distant from wherever they were growing dark and fading into nothing more than blackness once again, his grip on his pant leg growing limp again as the golden eyes filled with white and the head fell back slowly, going limp, but he could still hear the words as they echoed around in his head as if the bruised, bloodied lips kept repeating his name while all he could do was stare down at his dying best friend, useless in the course of actions that were coming about.

"Hanna, Hanna, Hannahannahanna, Hanna, Hanna… Hanna… Hanna… HANNA!"

The corpse of his best friend then leaned up, shouting blood into his view, screaming so hoarsely yet so loudly and-

"Hanna! Wake up!"

Someone was shaking him and Hanna shocked straight up in his bed, eyes blind and vision blurry with bad eyesight and invisible, burning tears.

"Hanna? Are you alright?"

He looked about the room, his eyes desperate to find that familiar, upon which they did, settling upon a mass much larger than he, that of green and black that melted with the room and golden-orange that stood out so much and, god, godgod-

"Hanna…?"

Hanna's breath was heavy and all he could do was collapse against his best friend, smiling widely as always as he hugged him so tightly, to which the zombie patted his back softly.

"Yeah, don't worry - I'm fine. Trust me."


End file.
